Aggies celebrate Crow, his legacy

COLLEGE STATION — When then-Texas A&M football coach and athletic director Jackie Sherrill chose to hire John David Crow as the Aggies’ associate athletic director in 1983, Sherrill heard from a concerned friend.

“You realize what you’re doing?” the friend asked. “John David Crow is a lot more important than you are.”

Sherrill smiled at the memory on Tuesday, following a service honoring Crow, 79, A&M’s first Heisman Trophy winner who died a week ago surrounded by his family, following a brief undisclosed illness.

Hundreds of friends, family and fans attended the “Celebration of Life” in Reed Arena, where a load of tales were shared of the enduring legend of No. 44. Sherrill, who in addition to football coach was A&M athletic director from 1982-88, said he laughed when his friend warned him about hiring Crow, because of the latter’s iconic status in College Station.

“I might not be the smartest guy,” Sherrill replied to the man, “but John David can do some things that I can’t do, and some things that I don’t want to do. It’s going to be a great marriage.”

A reflective Sherrill said Tuesday, “And it was.”

While Crow is best known for winning the Heisman in 1957 (Johnny Manziel is A&M’s other Heisman winner, in 2012), one of those things that Sherrill likely couldn’t do was a Crow strength: advancing the cause of women’s athletics at Texas A&M.

“It took someone of his level to be able to make some of the changes that had to be done,” said A&M soccer coach G Guerrieri, hired by Crow in 1993. “It took someone that strong and that well-respected to be able to take women’s athletics forward at A&M. It’s ironic that the toughest guy around is the one who took care of the ladies.”

She asked who would have thought “a big-time football player would become the champion for women’s athletics at A&M?”

Hickey pointed out that A&M, once an all-male military academy, had only integrated women as full-time students a decade before A&M women’s athletics started in the early 1970s. Hickey recalled Crow asking her not long after her arrival why women didn’t eat in the athletics cafeteria Cain Hall like the men.

“Quite honestly, we’ve never been invited,” she replied.

Hickey said by the next year the women’s teams also were enjoying Cain Hall. Hickey added that Crow often emphasized, “We’re not supporting women’s athletics because of Title IX, but because it’s the right thing to do.”

Title IX is a 1972 federal act offering protection “from discrimination based on sex in education programs and activities that receive federal financial assistance,” according to a government website.

“He made significant changes,” Hickey added of Crow making sure A&M women’s sports had adequate funding and support to compete at their top levels.

“You take the history of A&M, going back to E. King Gill, Gen. (Earl) Rudder, Coach (Paul) Bryant, and John David Crow,” Sherrill said. “I’m talking about years and years and years here. John David is probably top of the list. You can honestly say John David is in the top four of anything dealing with this school.”

Another sturdy reason for Crow’s place among A&M’s all-time greats? His passion for the university that carried from his college playing days to the NFL as a four-time Pro Bowler, and ultimately carried him back to College Station.

“The quickest way to get John David Crow riled,” recalled former A&M football coach R.C. Slocum, “was to say anything negative about Texas A&M.”

Brent Zwerneman is a staff writer for the Houston Chronicle and chron.com covering Texas A&M athletics. He is a graduate of Oak Ridge High School and Sam Houston State University, where he played baseball.

Brent is the author of four published books about Texas A&M, three related to A&M athletics. He’s a four-time winner of APSE National Top 10 writing awards for the San Antonio Express-News, including a second-place finish for breaking the Dennis Franchione “secret newsletter” scandal in 2007.

His coverage of Texas A&M’s move to the SEC from the Big 12 also netted a third-place finish nationally in 2012. Brent met his wife, KBTX-TV news anchor Crystal Galny, in the Dixie Chicken before an A&M-Texas Tech football game in 2002, and the couple has three children: Will, Zoe and Brady.